Antibiotic-Free Food Labels to Look For

More and more foods are being produced without the use of antibiotics. Here's how to find out if your food is truly antibiotic-free.

More antibiotics go into the food we eat than we take ourselves. About 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used on farm animals. Most animals are dosed regularly—sometimes even daily—with antibiotic-laced food and water in a practice known as subtherapeutic administration, which helps animals grow bigger faster and reduce disease in crowded and dirty pens.

Health advocates claim this practice is contributing to the rise of “superbugs” and antibiotic-resistant infections in people.